17-year-old entrepreneurs (and twins) from Galway, Mary and Sarah Murphy have created a hand-held gun to mark sheep. Up next? World domination.
How did you start? Why did you start?
The idea came to us when we were marking our own sheep on the family farm. We thought: ‘There must be a better way of doing this?’
We set up our company as a transition year mini-company in 2014 to compete in the Student Enterprise Awards. After a successful first year, we registered as a private limited company.
We continued to develop the product. We changed the material of the nozzle and tried different fluids in the gun, but it wasn’t until September/October 2015 when we were thinking of an idea to compete in the Student Enterprise Awards that we decided to produce the guns to be sold. [The kit currently retails at €60, this includes a gun, a cartridge, and a nozzle.] Visit the twins’ website here.
Market research and patenting
We carried out research to see would there be a market for our product. We then produced 100 guns and gave 20 to local sheep farmers. The feedback was very positive. We brought the product to market in February 2016 as soon our patent was pending.
We continued to sell the product and have attended numerous agricultural trade shows including the Tullamore Show and the National Ploughing Championships.
Awards and The Late Late
The product was a great success at the trade shows. We have gone from strength to strength competing in various enterprise awards such as the Student Enterprise Awards where we placed third nationally, the BT Young Scientist and Technology Exhibition where we placed third in our category and the Get Up and Go mini company awards where we were placed in the top three. We have also appeared on The Late Late Show with our
